

Knowing that they could use the Metaverse to change the world for the better, Ren and his friends formed a group dedicated to stealing the hearts of criminals: The Phantom Thieves.

Once they learned that they could change people's hearts with the help of the Metaverse Navigator and their Personas, Ren, Ryuji, and one of Kamoshida's victims (called Ann Takamaki) all joined the aforementioned cat and triggered a change of heart in Kamoshida by stealing his Treasure and defeating his Shadow. After barely making it to the castle's exit with the help of a talking cat, Ren and Ryuji returned to the real world and started investigating the application and Kamoshida's situation. When they were inside the castle, Akira confronted the Shadow of Kamoshida and summoned his Persona for the first time. The castle was actually the inside of Suguru Kamoshida's heart, a teacher who had been abusing students in more ways than one.

This was due to the application's power, which allowed people to enter the Metaverse, a strange cognitive world where the hearts of twisted people could be explored. When Ryuji and Ren arrived at school, they found out that it had turned into a castle. While the two teens conversed, the application automatically captured a few keywords with its voice input mode. He encountered a boy named Ryuji, who seemed upset about a teacher's behaviour. However, in his first day of class, the app reappeared when he was walking to class. After a few seconds, everything returned to normal and Ren deleted the app. When he opened it, it felt as though if time had stopped still, and he saw a strange red creature in the middle of the Shibuya Crossroads. He sued Ren for assault, but due to the corrupted nature of the court system, Shido came out on top, and Ren was forced to move to Tokyo and transfer to a new school.ĭuring his first day in Tokyo, a strange application appeared in Ren's phone. The molester turned out to be an influential politician called Masayoshi Shido. The young boy pushed the molester, causing him to fall and hurt his head. Naturally, Ren did not sit there and watch. He found a drunk man sexually assaulting an innocent woman. Ren Amamiya used to live a normal student life in a small town in Japan, but it all changed when he encountered a horrifying scene when he was walking back home at night.
